The Village of Eze
The Pondit has been preoccupied these past few weeks. Getting to the computer to turn his thoughts into computerized words has not been a priority. This morning I find my self twixt the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas. Looking up from my laptop I see only sea – waves and a few white caps and eventually the endless line of horizon between the deep blue water and the azure sky. The waves are rising up the hull of the ship as the Silver Wind spends a day at see traveling between her last port of call in Taormina, Sicily onto the island of Korcula, Croatia.
Barbara and I are on our honeymoon. It started with two glorious days in Eze, France. We stayed in the Château de la Chèvré D’Or in old Eze village. This hotel is in a part of the city where there are no cars or trucks. The village is situated on a mountaintop high above the French Rivera coast between Nice and Monaco. We spent every minute of these two days within the village. We did walk around the town, or better put, up and down the town.
Our room, like most of the hotel room was remote to the common service areas of the hotel. Room 34 was up some steps, always steps, and around the corner from the reception and the restaurant area. Our balcony overlooked the bar and fountain area and had a breathtaking view of the Rivera coast a good 1,200 feet below us. Breakfast on the balcony was a treat both days we spent in Eze. The meals at the hotel were some of the best we have ever eaten. Those French know how to throw some grub together.
Our room, like most of the hotel room was remote to the common service areas of the hotel. Room 34 was up some steps, always steps, and around the corner from the reception and the restaurant area. Our balcony overlooked the bar and fountain area and had a breathtaking view of the Rivera coast a good 1,200 feet below us. Breakfast on the balcony was a treat both days we spent in Eze. The meals at the hotel were some of the best we have ever eaten. Those French know how to throw some grub together.Unfortunately we did need to leave this fairytale setting to head to Monaco to meet our cruise ship. That trip was only six kilometers. Arriving at the port, we easily got settled in our room on the Silver Wind. We caught a taxi to head into the city to do some emergency shopping. Due to a poor choice of electrical converters, Barbara’s usually tame hair curler transformed into an inferno powered hair burner (Her hair was actually fused to the curling iron!). Although both her head and the device seemed to recover from the incident, the curling iron was no longer to be trusted. It is now locked inside our room safe on the Silver Wind. An attempt to find a curling iron in Eze was like trying to find a glass of water in an Irish pub. The taxi dropped us off several blocks from the very upscale Metropole Shopping Plaza near the casino in Monaco. By the way, everything is upscale in Monaco. We did find a device that was a distant cousin to a curling iron that was very accustomed to using 220 volts of power. This ten dollar hand held electrical device found in most Duane Reade drug stores in Manhattan cost seventy-eight Euros in Monaco.
Well Monaco is a very crowded city that is build straight up a mountain. The narrow roads wind back and forth with no apparent plan as to their location, width or direction. We waited at two cabstands where empty cabs just drove on by. We called the number our portside taxi driver gave us to use to request a return trip. The number did connect us to a recording announcing there were no cabs available. The late afternoon sun bounced off the heat saturated pavement and buildings while Barbara and I trekked back the two miles to the dock and our ship. Apparently the only reliable transport in Monaco is a chauffer driven Bentley or Mercedes coupe.
But one bad incident does not ruin a wonderful start of our cruise around Italy. I will try to find some time to chronicle each of our stops and include some photographs of the voyage. The Internet connection on the ship is quite slow and adding photos to the posting is beyond tedious.
